The Fearful Wrath of God

People are not afraid of God these days.

Startling events are recorded in Scripture in which God took action against those who had no regard for him, who rebelled, or who kept on sinning.

• God poured out His wrath on Israel when they rebelled against Him after having been delivered from slavery in Egypt. Read Exodus 32.
• God took the lives of two priests who had no regard for His instruction when they offered ’strange fire’ to God. Read Leviticus 10.
• God took the lives of all who followed Korah, Dathan and Abiram in their rebellion against God’s leadership. Read Numbers 16.
• During the period of the Judges Israel strayed from God into idolatry. For that, he allowed neighboring nations to oppress the people.

Prophets were sent to warn God’s people that He was about to take action against them due to their sin. The people mocked the prophets and would not listen. They were not afraid of God.

The descriptive language of the prophets warning Israel and Judah of God’s wrath is often terrifying. It was meant to be terrifying because God could not overlook the sins of the people. He wanted them to turn back to Him. So, He used vivid language that would communicate the terror of being the object of His wrath. There are no empty scare tactics with God. God is a God of justice and must take action against sin. It is His nature.

The prophet Ezekiel was sent with a message to idolatrous Judah. Recorded in the 21st chapter, God warned His people of His coming wrath. It was pictured as a sword. The sword was sharpened and polished. Yet, this sword was not an object of beauty. The sword was “sharpened to make a slaughter” and “polished to flash like lightning” (v. 10). The latter description is not about its appearance but more about the manner in which the sword struck, like a flash of lightning. The sword was sharpened and polished to be given into the hand of the slayer!

Ezekiel was told to clap his hands, presumably signaling the beginning of God’s destructive judgment. The sword would strike in a flash going to the left and then to the right suggesting a powerful double-edged sword. God’s judgment would be thorough and complete. He would also clap His hands together, “and I will appease My wrath” (v. 17).

The word translated ‘appease’ was used elsewhere in the Old Testament for rest or the idea of being settled. God’s wrath had been aroused by the sins of the people. It was appeased (settled) after His wrath had been poured out on the people as a destructive sword.

While God speaks through Ezekiel in rich figurative language, the meaning of the prophecy was clear. God had prepared a sword, and the figurative sword would come as a real king with a real army, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. God warned His people that He would use the nation of Babylon to carry out His divine judgment against them. That should have struck terror in their hearts and caused them to turn back to God. Foolishly, they did not. They did not fear God.

How foolish we are to read the Old Testament prophets as mere Bible stories. How foolish we are to read the warnings in the New Testament that tell us of God’s wrath because of sin and not feel a sense of dread. God has never lied in His warnings.

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Take the warnings seriously. 

Jesus will return. 

There will be a judgment. 

Only those who are in Christ are safe from God’s wrath!

Mark Stinnett

June 21, 2026

Us vs Them: God's View

We live at a time when many people, religious people, are tired of the Bible and its message. They have grown weary of the ‘bloody’ message of the cross. They think doctrine promotes controversy. “Why can’t we all just get along and help others?”

That sounds nice...except there is a distinction, a kind of ‘Us’ and ‘Them.’ God views the two distinct groups in various ways in Scripture, such as those who are in the kingdom of God and those who are not. Also...

• The godly and the ungodly
• The righteous and the unrighteous
• The good and the evil/bad
• The saved and the lost
• The saints and the sinners

Perhaps the most important distinction is that of the living and the dead. The Apostle Paul wrote to Christians in Ephesus and informed them that they were formerly “dead in your trespasses and sins.” He went on to say that through God’s grace they had been saved. God “made us alive together with Christ….” (Ephesians 2)

It is easy to read passages of Scripture like that and think it is figurative. However, the distinction of the living and the dead goes back to the beginning of the Bible when everything that God had created was good. He had created mankind in His own image. Mankind enjoyed fellowship with God.

However, when Adam and Eve sinned, it was more than the breaking of a rule. They literally separated themselves from God demanding their own independence. They wanted to think for themselves and make their own choices. It was not that God was opposed to them thinking and choosing. Rather, it was a matter of trust. Adam and Eve decided to trust in themselves and in doing so, broke fellowship with God. In that, they died.

So, in God’s view there is an ‘Us and Them.’ It is rooted in the distinction between God and man. Yet, before sin entered, there was only ‘Us.’ God did not change. Adam and Eve separated themselves from God and in doing so created an ‘Us and Them’ relationship. And from the beginning, the distinction was between the living and the dead: The Living God and man.

So, ultimately, God does not wish for the distinction. He is not in favor of ‘Us and Them.’ For that reason, from the beginning, He has been working out a plan of redemption, a plan that would give life to those who have separated themselves by sin and its consequence: death.

It is sometimes overlooked that there are consequences for choices and actions. For most people, the consequence of sin does not seem frightening. After all, people are not falling down dead when they get drunk, have an affair, lie, or gossip. However, the lack of immediate consequences does not mean that consequences do not exist.

The Bible teaches that Jesus will return to take the saints home with Him. It will be a time of separation in which God will make the ultimate and final distinction between the living and the dead. Those who have been born again, that is, made alive through the Holy Spirit will enjoy life eternal. All others will be forever separated from God and all that is good.

The Apostle John wrote a short letter (1 John) to Christians so they could KNOW that they possess eternal life. There IS a clear distinction: Those who have the Son of God have life; those who do not, have no life.

Do you have the Son of God?

Mark Stinnett

May 31, 2026

Here We Go Again!

In the church mail box came a mailer with the following message: “Inside: Two bombshell events the Bible says are dead ahead!” On the back was a chart that grossly misinterpreted some of the prophecies in Daniel as if they would be fulfilled in our day. They will NOT!

Yet again, an end-of-time/‘rapture’ forecaster has interpreted biblical prophecies to point to a time in his present day. I have never once heard one of these prognosticators shout to their generation: “Warn your great-grandchildren; in yet 100 years the prophecy will be fulfilled.” I have never heard one of them prophesy to another nation about things 200 or 300 years future. Never. It is always going to happen in the near present...and time and time again, the predictions have failed.

The Good

The good thing is that we can read the Bible and apply simple principles of interpretation to discover the divinely revealed truth. We can know the audience to which God’s prophecies were directed. In addition, we can determine either when or what kinds of conditions would make the fulfillment of the prophecy recognizable.

As for the prophecies in the book of Daniel, God actually named three of the four nations (all world empires) that would receive divine judgment: Babylon, Persia, and Greece. The fourth nation to receive God’s judgment would follow Greece, so, obviously, Rome. God also revealed a rather startling message to Daniel about his own people, the Jews. God told Daniel that the Jews would be judged. God judged the nation of the Jews in dramatic fashion in 70 A.D.

The overall message of the prophecies in Daniel is encapsulated in Daniel 2:44-45. The prophecy was about a future kingdom that was not of this world, in other words, the kingdom of God. The simple message: There would come a time when the people of God would no longer be ruled by men and the kingdoms of men. All of that is now history. Fulfillment of the new kingdom prophecy is described in Acts 2. It is a spiritual kingdom, not of this earth, just as Jesus said.

The Bad

The misapplication of biblical prophecy may give some people false hope. Taken at face value, those who teach that there will be a rapture before the final end of the world give false hope. Those who have no interest in God recognize that they will probably be spared and given yet another chance. So why turn to God now!?

At the same time, it scares some people. In the mailer that I received, warnings were given that included the use of digital currency, travel restrictions, worldwide vaccines. One must use a wide brush with broad strokes of biblical interpretation to paint conclusions such as those. Again, they are human interpretations!

The Ugly

At least as bad, perhaps worse, these kinds of predictions undermine the true message of Scripture when the modern-day prophets get it wrong. A watching world, concludes, “Here we go again! It’s another one of those Bible-believing quacks.” It gives Christianity a black eye and for those who already have a healthy skepticism, they lose interest in the Bible.

And by the way, the mailer gave a phone number and Internet address for a product catalog. Millions will be missing! Billions will die! But get your product catalog today! (Eye roll.)

The Bible says...

But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

—2 Peter 1:20-21

Mark Stinnett

January 5, 2024

Would You Like to Talk about Hell?

“No!”
That’s my answer to the title question: “Would you like to talk about Hell?”

I don’t want to talk about the reality of Hell. 

I don’t want to talk about the doctrine of Hell. 

I really don’t want to talk about Hell. 

And yet, when you read and study the Bible, the subject is inescapable. Hell is the place of eternal destruction and its existence brings in the foreground of the reality of divine judgment.

When the Apostle Paul went to Athens, he preached the gospel and concluded with a statement calling for repentance. Then, he added a statement of explanation:

Because He [God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. 

—Acts 17:31

The idea of judgment indicates that people will be evaluated and then placed into categories. Paul revealed the basis for judgment: righteousness. The one to do the judging is the man that God raised from the dead, that is, Jesus the righteous one.

There are several terms used in the Bible to describe the groups of separation in judgment:

• Righteous/Unrighteous
• Godly/Ungodly
• Holy/Unholy
• Good/Evil
• Forgiven/sinner

All of these can be reduced to the comparison: those who are like God and those who are not. Those who are righteous (godly, holy, good, forgiven) have been born again and are alive in Christ. Yet, those who are unrighteous (ungodly, unholy, evil, sinful) are dead. Life and death are not to be understood in a physical sense, but in light of one’s relationship with God. Those who are living are alive spiritually. Those who are not, are dead spiritually.

God’s judgement is the separation of the living and the dead, again, those who are like God and those who are not.

The fact that there will be a day of judgment is very clear in Scripture. 

   Jesus Himself spoke about the day of judgment (Matthew 11:22; 12:36). 

   Peter and John also warned their readers of the day of judgment (2 Peter 2:9; 1 John 4:17). 

   It was prophesied in the Psalms (9:8; 96:13; 98:9). 

Numerous other passages mirror the same.

To the surprise of some, Jesus will be the judge. That was not His role when He came to earth the first time.

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

—John 3:17

However, His return will be different…

...when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord…. 

 —2 Thessalonians 1:7-9

I don’t want to dwell on the day of judgment and hell. Yet, this negativity is true. It is placed in the Bible as a warning because God loves you and wants you to know Him. He wants you to obey the gospel, live righteously...and LIVE!

So, perhaps 'hell' is a relevant topic. The things God has revealed in Scripture will inform us so that we will learn how to respond in order to avoid hell.

God loves you and doesn't want you kept in the dark.

Mark Stinnett

February 4, 2024